problems w/kdepim4

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Aug 11, 2013, at 01:26, John Perry wrote:
> On Sunday, August 11, 2013 01:18:31 AM Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> On Aug 10, 2013, at 22:51, John Perry wrote:
>>> 1) mysql5-server should be listed as a dependency, as kdepim won't run
>>> without akonadi, which won't run without a mysql server.
>> No it should not, unless the mysql server must be running on the same
>> computer, which I doubt.
> 
> If a mysql server is not already installed, then kdepim will fail, unless 
> further configuration is done. On many users' installation, the server *would* 
> run on the same computer. This may be true of the average user, although not 
> perhaps the average current user of MacPorts.

Usually, running a network server is something a user must consciously choose to do. Just adding a mysql5-server dependency wouldn't ordinarily solve the problem; the user would still have to start that server. And the user must take responsibility for the server's configuration and possibly keeping backups of its data.

As a general (but unwritten) rule we don't add dependencies on network servers if that network server could also be run on a different computer, because if that's what the user wants to do, making them install additional software on this computer is a waste of their time.

I'm remembering more about this issue now. akonadi used to depend on mysql5-server. I filed a ticket about that 2.5 years ago, asking for it to be changed, for the above reasons:

https://trac.macports.org/ticket/27404

But then I realized that the akonadi port actually specifically references the mysqld server executable, and then I wasn't so sure whether akonadi might actually be starting the mysql server itself so I did not change it. It was changed later by the port's maintainer:

https://trac.macports.org/changeset/100492

I'm Cc'ing the port's maintainer to see what he can tell us about this matter.